Middle Road family farm bears brunt of twister in Poconos

Utter destruction. The reported tornado that ripped through a section of Cherry Valley on Wednesday afternoon uprooted trees, split power lines and transformed farm structures into thousands of pieces of rubble.

The reported tornado that ripped through a section of Cherry Valley on Wednesday afternoon uprooted trees, split power lines and transformed farm structures into thousands of pieces of rubble.

But the low density of residents in this rural, farming area probably helped avert catastrophic damage and injuries.

Twisted metal, splintered, nail-studded wood, concrete chunks, broken cables and downed power lines were all that were left at the Blakeslee farm, ground zero for the tornado. The farmhouse was badly damaged, and three barns were destroyed by the storm. One barn held hundreds of bales of recently harvested hay, reduced to litter in the wreckage.

The home and barns stood at the intersection of Blakeslee Road and Middle Road, in the heart of the recently designated Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

The intersection was unrecognizable. Debris covered the roadways, transforming a quiet, postcard-like setting into a hellish nightmare.

The tornado moved like a stone skipping water, touching down then jumping back up as it traveled its path of destruction, according to one witness.

The path of the tornado was easy to see, evidenced by the destruction on the edges of the open fields of the Blakeslee farm. The storm traveled west to east, parallel to Middle Road, which bisects part of the valley.

Large, decades-old trees, twisted, sheared or torn from their roots, blocked several roadways.

Groups of first responders, including volunteers from Blue Ridge Hook & Ladder Fire Company, Pennsylvania State Police, Stroud Area Regional Police, Hamilton Township personnel and EMS crews converged on the Cherry Valley intersection from several directions, fighting their way through the fallen debris.

Dozens of neighbors grabbed chainsaws and joined in the work.

Howard Blakeslee, a farmer whose family owned and operated the farm for generations, lives in a single-story ranch home about 100 yards from the touch-down site. While the home suffered only minor damage, the attached garage was completely destroyed, its wreckage strewn across the yard.

But oddly, a lightweight, aluminum chair still stood upright, untouched, in the middle of the garage that no longer had walls or a roof.

"It sounded like a freight train coming," Blakeslee said. "I looked around and laid down on the couch until it was over. You could hear trees breaking. The house was shaking."

What was Blakeslee thinking as he laid on the couch?

"I guess how soon would it be over."

And when it was over, the destruction was overwhelming.

"I couldn't believe what I saw. I built this home 50 years ago. I always thought it would happen to the other guy," he said.

The needles stripped from a 40-foot pine tree lay on the ground, forming a perfect, flattened outline in the shape of the tree. The stripped branches and the trunk sat several feet away, its roots torn from the ground.

A box of aluminum siding hung 20 feet off the ground, entangled in a tree, apparently swept up by the wind.

Another nearby farmhouse was spared serious damage, although about 30 percent of the trees on the property were destroyed.

When the homeowner checked one of the bedrooms, she found a disturbing scene. A bed that sat in the middle of the room was stripped of its linens. A duvet cover, light blanket, four regular pillows and four decorative pillows all laid on the floor in the corner of the room.

But a quarter mile away, the 250-year-old stone home of Joan Nolen on Cherry Valley Road was untouched. Nolen wasn't even aware of the destruction just down the road.

"I didn't hear anything," she said. "Duncan — the dog — was barking. I just heard the sound. It was just like a thunderstorm," she said.